Honour In Death
by Jed Rhodes
Summary: A Story written for Simon Barnes' fan fic series Travels of a Time Lord. The Doctor takes Jack and Eilidh to 1973, but they're not the only extraterrestrial visitors. Pretty soon, the Zagrites invade, and the Doctor has to race against time to stop them.
1. Prologue

**Authors note Eilidh Brown was created by Simon Barnes.**

_**--**_

_**Prologue**_

**Planet Earth, Local Dateline, 22nd September 1973.**

**Class 32 world, no interstellar capability detected, minor knowledge of extraterrestrial existence amongst some circles, not sufficient in power to stop full scale invasion. Threat level 4.7.**

**Commence invasion.**

--

Admiral Salasarankovasher stared at the little blue planet. He thought about the people, living their primitive lives. He smiled. They would soon either be dead, or they would serve him.

He held his hand out, and crushed the image with his fist.

"Sir?" came the voice of his Executive officer, Captain Dinaldiartralogan. "Your orders?"

"Attack," the Admiral replied. "Commence the assault."


	2. 1973

_**I**_

A country road in September 1973, about tea time, is where this tale begins.

There was nothing special about this road. About fifty three point six cars a day drove along it per day, on average, none of their occupants ever taking the sights in. Today was unusually quiet, as these days went. No cars, no vans, no bicycles.

Which was a shame really. After all, if there were passers by, they could have seen a time and space travel machine materialising on the edge of this road. But there weren't, and they didn't.

It was about nine feet tall, bright blue, and in fact looked just like a police box, the sort of which you didn't see very often anymore. Even less did you see them appear out of thin air, with a 'vworp vworp' noise reminiscent of trumpets.

Of course, you never, ever saw anyone in a brown pinstripe suit, dark grey shirt and dark red tie come out, either, but that's exactly what happened.

This man was the Doctor. And right at this moment, he was laughing.

"Oh yes!" he yelled. "I love the seventies!"

A man and a girl came out behind him. The girl was Eilidh, a welsh girl he had saved from a rather tricky situation in Cardiff involving fairies, his past self and a lot of temporal paradoxes the sort of which would make you want to go for an aspirin. The man was Captain Jack Harkness, who suffice to say didn't really ever need saving, except from himself in a bar.

"Woo –hoo, the seventies," Eilidh muttered. She was dressed in plan jeans and t-shirt, which, while not exactly period, were quite nondescript. "All of time and space he promises me and he gives me Bram Stoker, Vampires, Alien Rituals and now the seventies."

"Don't knock it!" Jack said, annoyed. He was, on the other hand, dressed in a black shirt with white pinstripes, and a seventies style stick-out collar, and a pair of suit trousers, complete with camel coat. "I liked this decade! Met a few nice people..."

"And shagged them?" Eilidh commented acidly. She and Jack didn't really... 'get on'.

"Now, now," the Doctor admonished. "Calm down, you two. We're all friends here."

"Whatever you say," Jack muttered under his breath.

"Anyway," the Doctor said, grinning broadly. "We have a decade to experience!"

"Well," Eilidh pointed out, "we're only going to experience this road, unless we hitchhike."

"Oh, no!" the Doctor countered, a smugness entering his broader-than-ever grin. "We're gonna travel in style!"

He took out his sonic screwdriver, aimed it at the TARDIS, and the vworping started again. A shape slowly materialised, and there, standing right in front of them, was a Ford Cortina, silver with black wheel coverings.

"A Cortina," Eilidh sighed, exasperated. "A bloody Ford Cortina. What is this, Life On Mars?"

"Fantastic, isn't it?!" the Doctor yelled excitedly. "And it's got a dimensionally transcendental fuel tank, there's fifty million gallons in there!"

"Cool," Jack whistled appreciatively. "I had one of these – have one of these – ah damn, I never get used to tenses in Time Travel."

"Neither do I," the Doctor sighed. "Anyway, shall we?"

He got in the front driver seat, and held the front passenger door open for Eilidh.

"You're sending me to the back seat?!" Jack protested.

"Yep," the Doctor said. "You've been here before, Eilidh hasn't."

"I've never been around here before," Jack protested, in a fake whiney voice.

"Jaaack," the Doctor said in a warning tone.

"Fine," Jack grumped, sticking his tongue out at Eilidh. She responded by making a rude gesture with her hand and smirking at him.

"Off we go!" yelled the oblivious Doctor. He pressed the tape button, and In the Summertime blared out, full volume.

The car revved, and they were off.

--

"_#Sing along with us, de, de, de, de, de..."_

The Doctor sang as loudly as a Time Lord can, tapping his finger against the wheel, all the windows open, the wind whistling through them.

"Do you actually know where we are?" Eilidh asked, doubt plain in her voice. "Or when?"

"Somewhere near Leeds, I think," the Doctor replied as the instrumental came in. "Or Sheffield."

"Who cares?!" yelled Jack from the back seat. "I'm on the back seat, and this is the best drive I've ever had!"

"Same here!" the Doctor shouted back. "This is great!"

Eilidh sighed. She was forever surrounded by testosterone fuelled males, and it got on her nerves. Still, what could she do...? The Doctor was alright, anyway, when he and Jack weren't having those 'boys own' moments.

They drove on, the Doctor putting every crap seventies song under the sun on. This got on Eilidh's nerves even more, and even she had thought that impossible.

"Are we going anywhere at all?" she asked, after she could bare no more Wizzard.

"Patience!" the Doctor chided in reply. "I know what I'm doing."

"Sure you do," Eilidh sighed under her breath. "And aliens are invading over this next hill."

"You never know," Jack commented.

The car drove on, eventually reaching the outskirts of a town.

"Oh, lovely," Eilidh said. "a suburban village. This is exactly what I came along for."

The Doctor ignored Eilidhs' sarcasm, and went into the post office. Eilidh sighed, and Jack tutted – she could be so self-centred, and rude, and...

He was interrupted in his thoughts, by a shudder in the ground. The Doctor ran out of the post office, a daily telegraph in his hands.

"The year's 1973, and what was that?!" he shouted.

Jack and Eilidh got back in the car, and the Doctor followed, ramming the accelerator. They drove a bit further up, and out of the village. The ground shuddered again.

"Doctor?" Jack asked. "What is that?"

"Something big," the Time Lord replied. "Something bad."

"This is going to be an alien invasion, isn't it?" Eilidh asked.

"Of course it's not," Jack said. "I don't remember –"

The Doctor slammed the brakes, and looked up. Jack and Eilidh's gazes followed his, and what they saw caused Jack to sit up, shock on his face, and Eilidh to gawp.

"Oh bloody typical," she muttered. "Bloody stinking typical."

A spaceship, triangular and squat, but absolutely huge, was hovering over the city below. Red beams of destruction were frying whole skyscrapers, and people were screaming faintly.

"So much for our holiday," the Doctor said. "This is not good."

"Who are they?" asked Jack, his voice quiet, and awestruck.

"If I'm not mistaken," the Doctor said, "I dare say that they're Zagrites."

Jack blanched.

"That isn't good, I take it?" Eilidh said, looking between the two men.

"Zagrites are a highly aggressive species," Jack explained, as if he was talking to an idiot. "They attack a world, conscript and enslave it's people, strip it's natural resources, and leave it a barren, uninhabited wasteland, which they then vaporise to clear the space ways."

"They aren't the toughest of the powers," the Doctor added, "but they'll take the planet in a few days at most. We have to stop them."

"How?" asked Eilidh.

The Doctor didn't reply, he just got out of the car.

"Jack," he said, without turning around, "take Eilidh, and try to help however you can."

"What are you going to do?" Jack queried, dreading the answer.

"This," the Doctor replied. He raised his sonic screwdriver, aimed it upwards, towards the ship, and a blue beam shot out of it. He then put it in his left trouser pocket.

Almost immediately, he vanished in a flash of yellow light.

"Doctor!" Jack yelled, stunned. "No!"

"Where did he go?" asked Eilidh.

"The Zagrite ship..." Jack replied. "He's gone to..."

"What?" Eilidh insisted. "What's he gone to do?"

"I have no idea..." the Captain said, and wished he did. Whatever the Doctor was doing, it had to be dangerous. Sounded like fun to him.


	3. The Zagrite Fleet

II

Almost instantly, the Doctor was surrounded by armed guards. That, he expected. He expected to be shot to pieces, to be honest. What he didn't expect was the leader to motion to him, and speak in a curt voice.

"Ambassador. This way."

The trooper then turned without another word, and left the Doctor to follow, which he did. The trooper led him into a lift, through corridors, and finally into a massive room, filled with control panels, scurrying Zagrites, and one superior-looking Zagrite was standing, presiding over it all.

"Ah, Ambassador," he said softly, turning and giving the Doctor his first look at an unarmoured Zagrite. Pale purple skin, slicked back silver hair, and ceremonial armour in jet black. "So glad you could join us."

"Well, I try not to disappoint," the Doctor replied. "I'm the welcome wagon for all alien visitors, and so... welcome!"

"Alien visitors..." the Zagrite Admiral repeated. "Yes, I suppose you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?"

"Dunno what you mean," the Doctor said, innocently.

"Don't play dumb, please," the Zagrite said. "We know the difference between a local and a – whatever you are. We scanned you the moment you came on board."

"Well," the Doctor said, "in that case, I suppose I should just ask – what are you doing here?"

"What we do everywhere," the Zagrite Admiral said. "Conquer, conscript, strip and vaporise. Although we might leave the last one out here."

"You don't fool me," the Doctor replied, shaking his head and leaning forward slightly. "I know Zagrite tactics back to front and sideways. This isn't your usual thing. You usually go for orbital strikes, vaporise the major population centre's, and mop up any resistance in a mass ground assault. Then, to finish off, you enslave the survivors, and blow the planet up."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes, the sheer anger in them so intense that the Admiral stepped back.

"Huh," the Zagrite grunted. "No fooling you, it seems. Ah well, it's not like you're going to get out of here alive, so telling you won't cause any damage, in the long run."

He turned to his control panel, and a hologram came up, showing a detailed map of Earth, complete with little Zagrite warships.

"This is the Earth," the Admiral said, unnecessarily. "These are our ships, in all the strategic locations, and from here, they go down into the atmosphere."

"Nice hologram," the Doctor commented, before immediately slapping his hand over his mouth. "Sorry, that is what you call it, isn't it?"

"Well, we actually call it a projector-view," the Admiral responded, "but your name sounds good."

The Doctor nodded comprehendingly, and then leaned over the projector-view, which was showing Zagrite troops landing in a burning city. He put his hands in his pockets.

"It all seems very new," he observed. "A bit of the old stuff, what with the blowing cities up, but land assault as well, leaving more survivors for... conscription?"

The Admiral nodded, and the Doctor continued his assessment.

"Plus a bit of a demoralising effect on the troops who are fighting back, if they can see your ship right above them, shooting bolts of death," he said, before leaning back and running a hand through his hair. "But it is markedly inefficient, and not something that seems to have been tested – you're taking baby steps with it, I can tell, attacking the less important cities like this one."

"Well, this is a new tactical stratagem," the Admiral explained. "We acquired it recently. The Quintrix Stratagem. It seems to work quite well, in its own fashion, albeit – and you're quite right to have said this – markedly inefficient, although I think with time that our forces will have perfected their use of it, and it will be our most effective assault weapon."

"More practical too, here," the Doctor added. "There are absolutely loads of big cities, and little cities, and in between cities to look for, it'd take you ages to blow 'em all up."

"Hm," the Admiral grunted in a noncommittal fashion. "There is that."

"Anyway," the Doctor continued, "you say acquired. Who did you acquire the Quilty – whatever strategy from?"

"What do you mean by that?" the Admiral asked.

"Who did you get the Quantex stratagem off of?" the Doctor repeated, speaking slowly as if to an idiot. "The TARDIS translator may be getting old, but it still works perfectly. I checked it last Tuesday."

The Admiral's eyes blazed.

"I think, Ambassador –"

"Doctor," the Doctor interrupted.

"- Doctor, whatever," the Admiral conceded. "I think you've outstayed your welcome – and your life."

He motioned to the troops standing guard. They raised their weapons.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes slightly, and leaned his head forward, gazing intently at the Admiral. He said one word, just one word.

"Don't."

The Admiral smiled at him.

"Just Don't," the Doctor said.

"Fire," the Admiral ordered his troops.

The troops fired.

--

Jack ran through the city under fire. He herded people to safety, he guided the soldiers defending the city, and he shot down Zagrites with his pistol. All the time, Eilidh stayed behind him, keeping out of the line of fire, and offering help to a few injured people. Doing her bit, the Captain conceded to himself, though he would never say it to her out loud. She was too stuck up and bigheaded to ever get that out of him.

One of the army Lieutenants, a short man with glasses, soon briefed Jack on the situation – the American always seemed to have authority when it counted.

"They're all over us, thousands of them," he said. "We can't hold them back much long –"

Another wave of fire from the Zagrites landed, and killed the Lieutenant and several of his men. Jack returned fire with is pistol, and the battle continued.

"You're pretty good with that thing," Eilidh commented.

"I've had a lot of practice," Jack replied.

Jack dispatched the last Zagrite troop with a head shot. Unlike many alien races, Zagrites weren't bulletproof by a long shot, something Jack found enormously refreshing. Having done that, he proceeded to run down an alleyway, scouting around for any stragglers. Eilidh followed him, cautiously, muttering something Jack didn't care to listen to.

"Eilidh, keep close to me," Jack whispered. There was no response from the girl, her mutterings ceasing.

"Eilidh?" Jack whispered again. He turned around, but Eilidh wasn't there.

"Eilidh?!" he yelled desperately. "Oh no..."

He ran off into the maze of alleyway, looking for a girl he hated. If anything happened to her, though, the Doctor would never talk to him again. He'd dump him on Earth, like last time. Jack had found a way to adapt on Earth, but he couldn't go back. He'd left the team after he'd promised never to do so again. He could never go back. Not really.

Could he?

"Eilidh!" he called yet again. Where could she be? He turned another corner, desperately seeking her out.

And there she was, being aimed at by two Zagrite troopers. They were speaking to her in a harsh language. Jack could've sworn she was answering in the same language...

"Alright, back off!" he yelled, aiming his pistol at them.

They turned faster than he could react, aiming and firing. He tried to move out of the way, but they were too fast, and they blasted him. He felt a sharp burning pain, and then nothing.

He hoped Eilidh would be alright, but then, nothing was certain anymore...


	4. A Plan

III

The Zagrite Admiral stared at the Doctor. The Doctor grinned back at him.

"You," the Admiral said, disbelievingly, "should be very, very dead right now."

"Should I?" the Doctor replied, still grinning. "Terribly sorry, I'm not very reliable when it comes to that sort of thing."

"But..." the Admiral insisted, "I ordered half the troops in this room to fire at you, and none of the guns worked."

The Doctor's grin widened more than the Admiral would have thought possible.

"Did you have something to do with this?!" the Admiral asked furiously.

"Well," the Doctor replied, his grin sliding off, replaced by an expression of mild inquisitiveness, "I suppose I could, feasibly, have done something before I came in this room, anticipating that you would want to kill me. And I suppose – feasibly – I could have used this," and here he took out a small silver pen like device, with a blue tip, "to disable all weapons on the interior of this ship. And perhaps with this device – which we shall call, for clarities sake, a sonic screwdriver, I could also perhaps have sent a signal to the entire Zagrite fleet, ordering immediate withdrawal behind the moon, until further notice."

He idly looked over the sonic screwdriver.

"Then again, I might be lying about all of that, and you're weapons are just faulty," he considered. "I could have lied about some things, and told the truth about others. I could even have just hypnotised your entire bridge crew. Take your pick."

The Admiral stared at him.

"What the hell are you on about?!" he screeched, causing the Doctor to rub his ears.

"Watch the old earlobe, mate," he said, annoyed. "Anyway, the point is, with all your weapons apparently not working, there's nothing to stop me from leaving here in one peace!"

The Admiral stared at him, and then smiled coldly.

"You know too little of Zagrites, Doctor," he said. "We are famed hand to hand combatants."

The Zagrite troopers discarded their weapons, and got into fighting stances around the Doctor, completely cutting off all escape routes. To the Admiral's surprise, the Doctor smiled, and clapped.

"Oh, very impressive," he said, turning to look at the troops. "Very, very impressive. Really, though. There is one problem, though, that you haven't considered."

"What's that?" asked the Admiral.

"I," the Doctor said proudly, "am the only two armed being in the universe to master Venusian Aikido."

He struck a fighting stance, and grinned.

"Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough," he sing-songed.

At a gesture from the Admiral, the troopers did. They moved in on him, from all side, intending to beat him into submission. The first trooper sent a punch flying the Doctor's way –

The Doctor grabbed his hand, and threw him across the room, before leaping feet first into another trooper, knocking him clean over, and sending two more flying with complicated looking arm movements.

He made a break for the door, the troops he hadn't knocked down close on his heels. He slipped into a closing lift door, and waved goodbye to the troops as the door slid shut.

"Dammit!" yelled the Admiral. "Find him, and kill him! We can't have him running around!"

Jack shot up, gasping for breath.

"Oh, look who's decided to join the land of the living," came a sarcastic, very familiar voice.

He turned to look at Eilidh, staring at him from an alleyway corner.

"Where are the Zagrites?" he asked.

"One of them must've dropped a laser gun," Eilidh replied airily. "And I used it."

"Ok," he replied. "Space armour with pockets, now that's intelligent."

"So," Eilidh sighed, pocketing the little laser, "what do we do now? We've done practically everything we can do, so...?"

Jack was about to reply with a cutting remark, he really was, but it's hard to do that when you're being teleported.

Then he was staring at the Doctor, who was grinning triumphantly.

"What kept you?" he asked. "You've missed all the bloomin' action!"

Jack didn't know whether to kiss him or punch him, but Eilidh got there first with her trademark sarcastic, but affectionate, remark.

"So, while we were busy saving lives," she said, "fighting invaders and nearly getting killed, what were you doing, Time Nerd?"

The Doctor ignored her sarcasm, and the insulting (albeit funny) joke, and moved himself into 'casual explanation pose.' Jack smiled at that – he found it rather sexy.

"Well, I've worked out their plan," he said. "It's pretty thick, actually."

He ran over to a computer terminal, and flicked a switch. A hologram came up, showing little Zagrite ships.

"The Zagrites plan on destroying the major cities, one at a time, using the extra soft quilt stratagem, or whatever," he explained to his friends. "Now, I've seen this tactic before, used quite successfully, but then beaten back."

"Where?" asked Eilidh.

"Independence Day," the Doctor replied airily. "Remake, 2043, starring Daniel Radcliffe, John Carnelli, and Donald Williams. Awful reviews, but it was an awful film."

"I saw that," Jack remarked. "I thought it was ok."

"Well, there's no accounting for taste," the Doctor commented. Jack pouted.

"Anyway," the Doctor continued, "I think I have a way to stop them, from right here inside their ship."

"How?" Jack asked.

"It's simple really," the Doctor explained. "One of us takes out the engines; one of us disables the command bridge."

"There are three of us," Eilidh pointed out. The Doctor often forgot details of this.

"Ah, well, I suppose I'll have to take you with me when I disable the bridge then, won't I?" the Doctor smiled at her. Eilidh smiled back; glad she wouldn't have to blow up an alien engine room all by herself. She turned to Jack.

"Good luck," she said in a faux sultry voice. He nodded back, sarcastically.

The Doctor walked off, and turned back to Jack before he walked out.

"When you've blown it up, head for the weapons room, stock up," he said. "And then head back for the teleport room, and go down and help the troopers out on the planet below."

"What'll you do?" the Captain asked.

"I," the Doctor said, "will be engaging in some very witty wordplay with the Supreme Admiral of the whole Zagrite Fleet."

Jack looked at him for a moment, then grinned.

"I always get the fun stuff. Guns, squaddies and explosions."

He winked at the Doctor, then ran off. The Doctor sighed, then walked out, to a waiting Eilidh.

--


	5. Back Again

**IV**

The Zagrite Supreme Admiral glowered at the security chief of his ship.

"How difficult," he asked, slowly and calmly "can it possibly be, to find one... stinking... INTRUDER?!"

The Chief stood firm in the face of the verbal assault, and answered back primly.

"He disabled all the main scanning systems, sir," he said. "Our foot troops have been unable to locate him."

"Well, you'd better hope they do," the Admiral growled, "or your head will decorate my desk."

He turned away, ignoring the Chiefs salute. The Chief spun on his heel, and walked off, already thinking plan through. Although his plans were not to capture the intruder, as his superior believed...

His deputy strode up beside him.

"Sir?" he inquired.

"His temper is out of control, and his tactics..." the Chief responded. "Well, they are pointlessly cautious for such a weak world as this."

"If you don't mind me saying sir," the Deputy replied, "I don't think this planet is worth the losses we're sustaining."

"How so?" the Chief asked.

"It's a waste of time," the deputy elaborated. "These people aren't surrendering, this world is third rate, and even when we do win, there's no honour in fighting such a stunted race. What'll people say about the Zagrites? That we slaughtered the defences of a planet that doesn't even have laser weaponry yet?"

The Chief considered his deputies words. The Notion of honour wasn't particularly important to him, as it was to his idealistic subordinate, but this world was indeed a third rater... and the losses they had sustained were far too high for such a simple people.

"And," his deputy added, "we can't not forget that these tactics were gleaned from an Alien, and we can't trust that they won't lead us into a trap."

The Chief nodded.

"All of this is true," he said, "but what can we do about it?"

"Mutiny," the Deputy said immediately. "All of our crew would follow you –"

"Apart from the Admirals personal guard," the Chief interrupted.

"Who number less than a hundred on a ship of a thousand," the Deputy insisted. "We could."

"But it goes against all of our laws," the Chief countered.

"We can declare that the Admiral was unfit for command," the Deputy suggested. "That he was endangering the lives of our troops. We can then evacuate our men, and go home, where the Admiral will be disgraced, his protests unheard, and a new Commander fro this ship assigned."

"Who, you?" the Chief scathed.

"No," his deputy replied earnestly. "You."

"Me?" the Chief said.

"You would become Captain, they would assign a new Admiral for you to serve under, and I would get your position, which is all I ever want," the deputy said. "Simple."

The Chief considered this, and was about to answer, when they were both distracted by the intruder walking up to them from around a corner, grinning, and holding his hands up.

"I surrender," he said. "And so does my associate."

A girl popped her head around the same corner the intruder came around, smiled and came up,m hands raised in surrender.

"Take us to your leader," the man said.

--

The Doctor winked at Eilidh as they were marched onto the bridge.

"We're in there," he whispered.

"As long as we can get out of there again," she whispered back, then straightened up as the Admiral noticed them.

"Ah Doctor," he said, smiling, "how nice of you to pop in."

"Well, I felt we left it too soon last time," the Doctor replied. "Wanted to have a chat about random killing of people, invading of planets, Quilt loo roll..."

"And this is your friend?" the Admiral continued, ignoring him.

"Yeah, this is Eilidh," the Doctor said, smiling.

"And how did she get on?" the Admiral asked.

"Transmatted her up," the Doctor said, afraid that the Admiral was getting somewhere.

"Anyone else?" the Admiral asked, smiling the smile of a shark.

"Nope," the Doctor said, innocently.

"Like I believe you," the Admiral growled. "Search the ship! He probably brought a whole army of his compatriots aboard!"

Security officers snapped to attention, then rushed off to obey the Admirals orders.

"I didn't, you know," the Doctor said. "No one here but me and Eilidh."

"If I had a penny for every lie you have told me," the Admiral began, but Eilidh interrupted.

"Even if you did find Jack, he's immortal!" she yelled.

The Doctor stared at her for a moment in absolute shock, and slapped his head with his hand.

"What did you say that for, Eilidh," he muttered.

"He knew we were lying," she hissed back, "so –"

"He was bluffing," the Doctor sighed. The Admiral coughed, and the Doctor turned back to him.

"You were lying then," he commented.

"Yeah, so sue me," the Doctor replied. "Wouldn't you?"

"Oh yes," the Commander said. "But then again, I don't like people lying to me. I think it's time for you to die."

He motioned to his guards, and they covered the Doctor and Eilidh with their weapons. The Doctor looked at Eilidh, and she stared back.

"Sorry about this," he said.

"It's ok," she replied. "I chose this. And I have a backup plan."

She put her hand n her pocket, as the Admiral raised his arm to give the execution order...

The Doctor locked eyes with him, glaring with disgust at this greedy little man.

"You'll regret this," he said.

The Admiral only smiled, and his arm dropped...

Eilidh flashed the laser she had picked up earlier out, blasting one of the guards.

The room suddenly shook, throwing all of them to the floor. The lift door opened, and Jack sprayed laser fire into the room, taking out three guards, and winging the Admiral.

"C'mon!" he yelled. "This way!"

The Doctor ran over to a computer console as Eilidh ran to Jack, entering a command to the ship to lock the main computer, and putting in a code no one would think to use.

The Doctor ran towards the lift, laser fire following him closely, impacting at his heels. The door shut, and the Doctor leaned against the wall breathlessly.

"Well, I locked out the main computer," he said. "They won't be getting into that anytime soon."

"How did you know we were in trouble," Eilidh asked Jack.

"A little bird told me," the Captain replied, smiling and winking at her.

"Oh?" the Doctor asked. "What kind of little bird, I wonder?"

The lift stopped, and the doors opened.

"This one," Jack said.

Standing there, in full battle armour, were a Zagrite officer, and two squads of his men.


	6. Biggest Bloody Cliche In Sci Fi History

V

"What's all this then?" the Doctor asked, looking over the officer with a keen eye. "Helping the enemy? That's tantamount to –"

"Mutiny," the Zagrite finished. "I am well aware of it. But this time, it is necessary."

"Why?" the Doctor asked. "The Admiral seems like a good Zagrite to me. Eats his greens, leads his men, invades worlds..."

"Takes strategies off of aliens," another Zagrite said. "Which in itself s against our law."

"So," the officer finished, "we are within our rights to do this."

"So what's the plan?" the Doctor asked.

"Your friend attempted to disable our engines. This is impractical, as we need to get home after seizing control of this ship," the officer said.

"So you're not going to keep invading?" Eilidh asked.

"No point," the other Zagrite said. "This world is hardly a prize."

"Other aliens think it is," the Doctor pointed out.

"We don't," the officer said.

"Anyway," the other Zagrite said. "We figure, the best way to seize control is a coup – eliminate Admiral Salasarankovasher, and then stop the assault forces."

"Sounds simple enough," the Doctor said. "Though his name doesn't."

"It's get's complicated," Jack said, "when you realise that the entire bridge crew was handpicked for loyalty to the Admiral."

"So to eliminate him," Eilidh began...

"We would have to take out the entire bridge crew, yes," the Zagrite officer completed.

"I have an idea," the Doctor said. "Where's your air conditioning control system?"

"Three decks down," the Zagrite replied. "Why?"

"If we get down there, we can flood the bridge – specifically the bridge – with nerve gas, and knock the entire bridge crew out," the Doctor explained, quite quickly.

The Zagrite officer considered this for a moment, and nodded.

"That would work," he said. "Follow us."

"Just out of interest," Eilidh asked, "what's your name?"

"Cardeloniasderate," the officer replied, off-handily.

"Mind if we call you Carde?" the Doctor asked. "Only saying Cardeloniasderate all the time can get a bit time consuming..."

"Of course, for the sake of efficiency," Carde replied. "We don't refer to ourselves by our names anyway."

"Oh, thanks," the Doctor replied. "Last bloke with a long name I met wouldn't shorten it for anything, even a shipwreck..."

--

"Oh you are kidding," Eilidh said. "This is the biggest bloody cliché in sci fi history made flesh."

"Wouldn't be the first time," the Doctor commented dryly.

The air conditioning room was a massive pipe, with control panels on a thin gantry. The gantry was old, rusted and wind battered.

"This is not good," Jack said. "We've got to get over there."

"It shouldn't be so difficult," Carde said. "I figure that one of us can get over there, alter the settings for the air on the bridge, and get back in... five minutes, max?"

"I suppose that'd be me, what with being immortal, right?" Jack said.

"No," the Doctor replied. "I'll do it. I'm the only one with the technical knowhow."

"Are you sure?" Eilidh asked. "I mean, if Jack's immortal, he can..."

"I'll do it," Jack said. "Don't risk it Doctor."

"I'm doing it, and there's no debating to be done," the Doctor said. "I'll do it."

Jack looked about to protest some more, but Carte nodded sharply.

"If you insist, then I shall cover you from here."

The Doctor nodded back, and turned to run up the steps. Carte gestured to two of his men, and they headed for other gantries, weapons raised.

"Will he be alright?" asked Eilidh.

"Yes," Jack replied. "He's the Doctor."

--

On the gantry, the Doctor was less confident than his friend.

He had reached the consle wuickly, and was implementing the final few commands, when a laser bolt impacted behind him, showering sparks over his back.

"Whoa!" he yelled, crouching down. He turned to look, and saw a few Zagrite engineers with pistols firing at him from a high gantry.

He ducked as another salvo headed past him, and desperately grabbed his sonic screwdriver, meaning to disable their laser weapons, but then the engineers were pinned down by fire from another gantry.

Carte's men, probably, the Doctor thought. The engineers continued to fire, but only half of their shots were directed at him now. He got up to continue his work on the console.

This was then hit by a laser bolt, blowing it to pieces, and knocking the Doctor to the gantry floor, which creaked ominously. The Doctor scrambled to get up, as parts of the gantry started to fall away.

He ran, as more laser fire came down where he had just been. He saw Carte and Jack firing their respective weapons, as security forces (in Imperial Purple armour) appeared on the opposite gantry, shooting Carte's men down.

"We've lost the element of surprise now!" the Zagrite moaned. "The Admiral will know there's a mutiny!"

"Then marshal your men," the Doctor replied. "Take the ship now, while you have a chance."

The Zagrite nodded, then contacted his leaders. The battle for this ship would be fought – and he was damned if he was going to lose.

The Doctor turned to Eilidh and Jack.

"Now what do we do?" Eilidh asked.

"Jack," the Doctor said, "help Carte and his men out. Eilidh, you're with me, we're going to confront the Admiral in his own den."

"Again?" she asked, exasperated.

"Hm," he said. "Well, what can you say, he's an important player."

"Yeah," she said, "and this is a crappy seventies s-f."

The Doctor tutted and ran off, leaving Eilidh to follow.

The Admiral grimaced. Mutiny. He'd never live it down at the officers club, they'd laugh at him – then kill him for dereliction of duty, naturally.

He turned away from the monitor on his bridge, and towards a control panel, which he then activated.

He entered the code, which bypassed the main computer systems entirely. The Doctor's meddling was irrelevant to what he was doing. All of it was irrelevant.

He keyed in the final command.

Self destruct system activated.

He sighed. There were many good men, loyal to him and their cause, who would die here. He silently commended their bravery, and hoped that they would be remembered as brave, true Zagrites. He was a pureblood officer, though, and he was damned if he was going to let a Mutiny of all things disgrace him for all time in the history books.

This ship would die. With it, is would the mutineers, the Doctor and himself.

But the Doctor would die first.

--


	7. To The Death

VI

Carde slammed is hand into the wall. He, the Doctor and Eilidh were in the Transmat chamber.

"The main computers locked out by a code!" he said. "We can't get through!"

The Doctor stepped up to the console and entered a ten digit code.

"'Rose Tyler'?" Carde said. "What is that?"

"The name of an old friend," the Doctor replied, sadly. "Anyway, to business."

"What are you doing?" Eilidh asked. "And why are we in the Teleport room?"

"I'm transmatting the Doctor and myself to the bridge," Carde replied. "We're going to eliminate the Admiral, and cut the head off of the invasion."

"Uh huh," Eilidh said. "How will that stop the invasion?"

"I'll take command of the fleet," Carde replied. "They'll listen to whoever's in charge on here. Simple."

"We're ready," the Doctor said. "Eilidh, press this button when I give the signal."

She got into position. The Doctor gave a thumbs up sign.

She pressed the button.

The Doctor and Carde slowly disappeared.

--

As soon as they rematerialized on the bridge, they knew something was off.

"What happened?" Carte asked, in a state of mild shock.

"It's safe to say," the Doctor replied, "that there was a lot of shooting going on."

There were bodies scattered around, blasted to pieces by laser fire. Some of them were grasping useless blasters in dead hands, and discarded on the observation deck was what looked like a rapid fire heavy blaster.

"The Admiral," Carde murmured. "I didn't think he would be this unhinged, but –"

"He is," the Doctor finished. He was staring at a slightly shot tactical display. The only words that could be made out were 'Se-f d-ruct sequence ac--d. D--t in twent- minut-s and co-nti-g.'

"Sefd ruct sequence acd?" Carde murmured. The Doctor shrugged, before it hit him.

"Self destruct sequence!" he yelled. "Admiral Sally boy's going to blow this ship up!"

Carde's eyes widened. This was impossible. A fizzing noise squawked out of his communications device.

"Cardeloniasderate here," he replied without thinking, holding the comm-device to his mouth.

"This is Lortaruiostrar!" a desperate voice yelled. "We can't hold out, sir, there're too many loyalists against us!"

"Pull back," Carde ordered.

"Can't sir," Lortaruiostrar replied. "We're cut off. It's been an honour."

"The honour," Carde murmured, "has been all mine. Honour in Death."

"Honour in Death," the reply came. "And glory in the next life."

"To you and all others," Carde whispered, before shutting the comm-device down.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, and he meant it. "I truly am."

"No," Carde replied. "It's the Admiral who'll be sorry. I'm going to rip him to shreds."

Without thinking, he ran off, leaving the Doctor alone. The Time Lord stared after him for a while, before sighing. He knew where the Admiral was.

"You can come out now," he said. "I'm ready."

A compartment on the floor popped open, and the Admiral climbed out.

"How did you know I was there?" he asked.

"I heard you're breathing," the Doctor replied, "and you're heartbeat. It's pretty easy to discern that there's one more heartbeat than there should be when there's only two people alive in the room. What I don't get is why."

"What do you mean?" the Admiral asked.

"Why would you stay here, risking life and limb, when you've only got twenty minutes to escape?" the Doctor asked.

"You," came the reply. The Doctor looked nonplussed at this, so the Admiral elaborated. "You are the cause of all my woes, and of the failure of this campaign. I will therefore absolve myself of dishonour, and destroy you."

"Mortal combat, is that it?" the Doctor asked. "Kill us all?"

"Death with honour," the Admiral replied. "We will die, but we will be remembered."

"Uh huh," the Doctor replied. "And the crew here?"

The Admiral sighed.

"I regret that. They were true Zagrites," he said. "But they have earned Death with honour, Glory in the Next Life."

"And you?"

"The same," the Admiral said, grimly. "I will die knowing that my duty is done and you are dead."

He took out two thin rapier style swords. He tossed one to the Doctor.

"Right," the Doctor said. "A bit low tech, isn't it?"

The Admiral pressed a button on the hilt of the sword, and blue light wreathed it. He swept it through a desk, and it fell apart in to pieces.

"Ah," the Doctor said. He flicked his own swords button, and raised it in defensive posture. "To the death?"

"To the death," the Admiral nodded, before leaping to the attack.

--


	8. Half an Hour In The Life

VII

Jack sighed, and checked his watch.

"How long has the Doctor been gone?" asked Eilidh.

"Not long," the former Time Agent replied. "Twenty minutes or so."

"Then why d'you keep checking your watch?" Eilidh queried.

"Because in twenty minutes, the Doctor could have beaten the bad guy, saved the Damsel in Distress and changed his face."

Eilidh nodded sagely.

"Half hour in the life, huh?" she commented. Jack nodded, and then checked his watch again.

--

Carde ran along the corridor. Something was off, he knew. The Admirals private escape pod hadn't been launched, the crew were all either dead, or gone – and there was no sign of the Admirals corpse. What's more, of all the escape pods, none of them held the Admirals code on the crew list (Zagrite escape pods needed the crew to sign on, so the officials who questioned them later would know everything about them) and that in itself was worrying, in that it suggested the Admiral was still on the ship, meaning that he could be anywhere...

Even the bridge...

Quick as a flash, Carde ran back the way he'd come.

--

The Doctor parried his opponent's blade, stepped back, stabbed forward, parried again, before spinning into a slash that sent the Admiral stepping back off balance.

"You are skilled Doctor," he commented, regaining his posture. "That makes your defeat all the more difficult to achieve, sweetening the moment when I finally do."

"If you do," the Doctor countered. "I might win!"

"Yes you might," the Admiral conceded. "I am no hopeless optimist. You are indeed a worthy foe. I will enjoy this greatly, one way or the other."

The Doctor slashed at him again, but instead of sprawling off balance, the Admiral got inside the Doctor's guard and cut his arm, before darting back, parrying the Doctors counter strike.

"Of course," the Admiral said, "I might also win."

"Yes," the Doctor replied, grinning, "you might. You might indeed. But I'm not planning on losing today."

"Neither am I," the Admiral said, "but alas, one of us must."

"You know where I've heard someone talk like you before, Admiral Sally?" the Doctor asked. The Admiral shook his head; ignoring the insult – he probably didn't think it was an insult – he instead took advantage of the Doctor's distraction to cut him across the cheek. Ignoring this, the Doctor smiled and continued. "The Javaman. Back then, I was a little more uptight, a little weirder – my coat was testament to that, it was hideous – and I tended to fight megalomaniacs a lot, and he was a little guy obsessed with controlling the secrets of time – you know, namedropper, etc. Anyway," the Doctor said, parrying another thrust and riposting it, before darting back and smiling. "I stopped him. And I'll stop you too."

The Admiral said nothing, but merely continued his assault. They darted back and forth, their shining blades leaving imprints on the eyes of any hypothetical watchers. This fight would clearly not be decided quickly...

--

Jack checked his watch again, and sighed. What was taking the Doctor so long?

"How long now?" Eilidh asked.

"Thirty minutes," Jack replied. "It's not like him to take so long without meeting the bad guy."

"So you think he's fighting the big bad now?" Eilidh asked.

"Yeah," Jack said. "That sounds like him."

Eilidh looked over to the door.

"Shouldn't we go help him?" she asked.

"He knows what he's doing," Jack sighed. "I hope..."

Eilidh stared at him for a moment, then walked over to the door.

"Hey!" Jack yelled.

"I'm going to go help him," Eilidh said. "Whether you like it or not."

Jack couldn't help but smile – she was like Rose in one respect at least, that she wouldn't just abandon the Doctor. He was about to follow her but –

"Ah!" she yelled. She ducked as laser blasts impacted around her.

"Get into the teleport booth!" Jack yelled. "I'll transmat you to the bridge and you can help the Doctor there!"

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'll be fine!" he replied. "Go!"

He shot at the first Zagrite trooper that came in, killing him instantly. He quickly set the teleport co-ordinates, and sent her off, before shooting two more.

He hoped, for the second time that day, that Eilidh would be ok...

--

The Doctor turned his head, as the figure of a woman materialised on the bridge. The Admiral noticed it too, and lowered his sword slightly.

Eilidh materialised, and the Zagrite crossed over in a moment, grabbed her, and held the sword – switched off – to her throat.

"Doctor?!" she yelped, bewilderedly.

"Let her go!" the Doctor yelled.

"I told you," the Admiral said, "that I was always planning on winning. Surrender or your friend dies."


	9. Honour In Death

"Leave her out of this," the Doctor said. "She's done nothing to you, she isn't involved!"

"She's a friend of yours," the Admiral replied. "And so she is emphatically involved in this, Doctor."

"She isn't," the Doctor insisted. "Leave her out of it."

"No," the Admiral spat. "I won't."

The Doctor spun his sword in his hand.

"I will not sacrifice humanity for one person," he said, slowly. "If you kill Eilidh, I will kill you anyway, but if you threaten to kill her, I won't jeopardize the future of humanity by surrendering. You can't win."

"Doctor?!" Eilidh gasped.

"Isn't she important to you?" the Admiral asked, confused by the Doctor's words. "Would you not try to preserve her life?"

"Nope," the Doctor said. "Human women are ten a penny and frankly, she complains too much for my liking."

The Admiral stared at him for a moment in abject shock, and then released Eilidh. The Doctor grinned.

"Why you -!" Eilidh started, striding up to him, raising her hand.

"Now, now," the Doctor said, raising his hand, "Let's not be violent, besides which…"

He ran forwards, sweeping his sword down, knocking the Admirals sword of his hand, where it fell in two pieces. The old Zagrite stood back.

"What?" he yelled. "Wh –"

"Always," the Doctor smiled, "always, pay attention to the sonic screwdriver, not the nattering guy in the suit."

He held up the sonic screwdriver and shook it merrily.

"Sorry about that Eilidh," he said, turning to her. "I had to –"

Before he finished speaking, Eilidh slapped him across the face. He wobbled his jaw, rubbed it, and stared at her.

"That would be three times," he muttered. "On last count."

"Three times what?!" she said, angrily.

"That you've slapped me," he replied. "Have you got any kids?"

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I've been slapped twice by mothers, at last count and by no one else, unless you count twice by an angry ginger bride," he said. Then he turned to the Admiral. "Anyway!"

"How did you break the sword?" the Admiral gasped in astonishment.

"Used the sonic, to switch it off remotely, then swiped." the Doctor said. "You're done."

The Admiral glared at him, hatred there deep in his eyes.

"That's what you think," he replied. He drew a gun out of his pocket, and aimed it at the Doctor. The Time Lord stared at it warily, watching the Admiral carefully.

"I am Admiral Salasarankovasher, decorated war hero, commander, respected leader, loved by my men, and I will not die here in shame!" he barked. "You have ruined it all for me, Doctor! I will destroy you!"

"No!" came a voice. Carde ran forward, aiming his gun at the Admiral and firing like a madman. The Admiral was winged in a second, but returned fire, catching the former chief of security on the ship in the chest. The dying Zagrite spat in the Admirals direction, then slumped to the floor.

"Traitor," the Admiral spat, lying on the floor gasping in a growing pool of his own blood. "To hell with him."

"He was a better man than you," the Doctor replied. "Honour in Death, and Glory in the Next –"

"You profane that phrase!" the old man barked, but weakly. He tried to aim his gun at the Doctor one last time, but his arm wouldn't go high enough. He spat at the Doctor, closed his eyes, and breathed out slowly, his last ever breath. He seemed to lose an inner strength that had kept his features firm, his face strong, and they both fell into what the Doctor thought of as a typical old man look. Sad, but at peace.

"Honour in Death," the Doctor whispered. "And Glory in the Next Life."

Eilidhs eyes were blank as she stared at the dead man. Finally, she murmured; "why did you say that to him? About me?"

"Had to convince him I didn't care, or he'd have killed us both," the Doctor replied softly. "He was insane."

"Then why did you wish him that?" she asked.

"Because he was a soldier of Zagroatia," the Doctor replied. "He deserved better than this. Old Soldier," he finished quietly, without elaborating.

He turned to her, sadness in his eyes, and looked at her.

"C'mon," he said. "Let's go find Jack."

--


	10. The Flight of Captain Jack Harkness

X

The Zagrite ship listed, flying above the planet Earth. Parts of it were already damaged, from the various sabotage efforts by the two factions, and with the bridge gone, the ships controls were shot, and she was drifting further out. Inside, things were worse.

--

Jack took out another Zagrite trooper, and rolled to avoid a barrage of laser fire that shredded the console he had been at even more than it had been already. Even if he had wanted to follow Eilidh, he couldn't.

Oh well, he thought, at least this is fun. He shot down another trooper, and sighed behind his cover – a wall. Brilliant.

He had already died twice here, and there was no sign of the Doctor coming to get him. For all he knew, Eilidh had lied to him, said Jack had betrayed them – and knowing the Doctor, he'd believe little miss perfect –

No, that train of thought didn't help at all. It really didn't. Concentrate on the positive.

One: there are only limited numbers of them, and he couldn't die. They'll run out of troops after a while, and then he could get away.

Two: Eilidh, despite his misgivings, Eilidh probably would tell the Doctor about the pickle he was in, and they'd come to rescue him, and then he'd kiss them both. Well, the Doctor anyway, he wouldn't touch Eilidh with a barge pole. Although…

No, bad Jack, down boy! Don't even think about it.

Three: He didn't have a three. Damn.

He shot another Zagrite down, and grinned to himself slightly. This was not the worst day he'd ever had. There was after all the day he got pregnant, and the day the Doctor abandoned him...

Abandoned him. What if he did it again? Left Jack here to fight a bunch of hunky aliens, while he was swanking around with his female companion? He'd done it before, when he'd left Jack on Satellite Five – the Games Station. He'd run away, leaving Jack to pick up the bits of his shattered life, and try to find him again. Leaving him to get caught by Torchwood.

Jack shot another Zagrite down. He was getting angry now, though whether it was at the persistent aliens or the Doctor, he couldn't tell.

--

"Where's Jack?" asked the Doctor, as they ran along the corridors.

"I think he's gone to Earth," Eilidh said. "Like you said for him to do."

"Good man," the Doctor said, grinning. "Finally he's listening to me. Which is good, because the ship's about to explode."

"What?!" Eilidh said. "When were you going to tell me that?"

"Now," the Doctor said. "Anyway. Escape pods?"

They ran on, Eilidh now genuinely hoping Jack had gotten to the planet below. Immortal he might be, but even he couldn't survive a ship exploding. She didn't think.

--

Jack peeked his head out. There was no one else coming. All the Zagrites had died trying to kill him, and while his beloved Webley revolver had run out of bullets, the Zagrite weapons he'd used in its place were adequate enough for the task at hand.

Nobody there, so he decided to go. Find the Doctor. Get Eilidh to explain why they hadn't come looking for him. Possibly kiss the Doctor. Maybe Eilidh. No. Don't think that. You don't like her. Concentrate.

He ran along a corridor, searching for them, and held his borrowed Zagrite laser close to his chest, hoping he didn't have to use it again. It'd be just his luck if it ran out of power when he ran into a squad of Zagrite Shock Troops.

--

Just as he left the teleport room, Eilidh and the Doctor entered it.

"What happened to escape pods?" asked Eilidh.

"This is neater, pods make me space sick," the Doctor said slightly sheepishly.

"Eurgh," Eilidh groaned. "Don't make me think about that."

"Anyway," the Doctor rattled on. "Teleport controls... appear," he continued, examining the console, "to have been shot to bits. This isn't the one you were in, was it?"

"I think it was," Eilidh replied, slowly, carefully. "I'm not sure if Jack made it out, come to think of it..."

"Well, we'll have to hope he did, we can't wait any longer," the Doctor said, waving the Sonic Screwdriver over the controls. "We'll be able to teleport, but we can't tell if anyone else has. Oh Jack," he murmured to himself quietly. "Please be on Earth."

He stood on the teleport pad, and closed his eyes. Eilidh stood next to him, and together, they dematerialised, the familiar sensation of falling apart and reconstituting waving over the Doctor. He had no idea how Eilidh felt.

She felt quite queasy, actually.

--

"Doctor?!" Jack called as he ran through the shattered Zagrite ship. "DOCTOR?!"

There was no sign of him, or Eilidh. What if they were dead? No, they couldn't be. Back on Earth? Yes, that would be the most plausible. The Doctor up and leaving him again...

'Stop thinking that!' he thought. 'It's not doing anyone any good.'

He decided to head for another transmat chamber. That was the best idea. It would probably be –

"Alert," an inhumanly calm voice sounded, from the only speaker on this level that hadn't been shot. "The self destruct sequence has been activated. This is your only warning. Silent countdown initiated. 60 minods to self destruct.

Jack looked at the speaker in disbelief. He ran to the nearest terminal and quickly confirmed this. The ship was gonna blow.

Had the Doctor known that? Was he banking on Jack's immortality to save him? The immortal former Time Agent didn't know, but didn't care either. If this was it, he thought to himself, then he'd at least let the world know his final thought, even if he was the only one who'd hear it.

"Oh sh -" he began.

The ship exploded, fire roaring towards him, burning and twisting the corridors…

There was only light.

--

On planet Earth, the Doctor and Eilidh watched the ship explode. It was like a second sun had been born, filling the sky. The Admiral had piloted it out to just near the moon, so there'd be a few new craters there, and the remains that fell here would have U.N.I.T and Torchwood squabbling for months over debris. Lovely.

"I'm sorry," Eilidh said. "He was..."

"Magnificent," the Doctor finished quietly. "A one-of-a-kind man."

"Alright," Eilidh whispered to herself. "For a sexist rake."

The Doctor stared at the sky. He wished Jack well on the next great adventure, and hoped that he'd enjoy himself.

'Plus side,' he thought to himself, 'he'll get to meet a heck of a lot of beautiful women. And Noel Coward. That should be fun for him.'

Then he squinted. What was that thing, falling from the sky? Down and down it flew, faster than a bullet, hurtling towards the ground, screaming.

"What?!" he yelled, as he recognised it. "That's... that's..."

"What?" Eilidh asked. "What is it?"

"Impossible..." the Doctor said. "Not even he could..."

They were interrupted by the object crashing down into the ground, with a splash of mud. The Doctor and Eilidh were showered with it, Eilidh screaming in shock.

"What the hell was that?!" she yelled after a moment. "What in Gods holy name was that bloody –"

The Doctor said nothing as a stark bullock naked figure crawled out of the crater. His skin was red, his hair was charred, and he looked like he'd just been through a war zone. Minus the fact he was naked, naturally. As they watched, his skin returned to its regular paleness, his hair grew back, and normalised, and with that, Captain Jack Harkness smiled at his friends.

"Hi guys!" he said. "Did ya miss me?!"

"WHAT?!" Eilidh yelled. "How the... what the... bloody hell!"

"Took the words right outta my mouth," the Doctor muttered, pointedly looking away from the Captain while taking his coat off and holding it out. "Put this on quickly. Please!"

Jack took it, and buttoned it up. He was still grinning like a crazy person.

"Whoo!" he yelled after a moment. "That was a rush!"

"What was it like being on an exploding ship?" Eilidh asked.

"It was..." Jack said, "Beautiful. There was a light, bright as a star, and then there I was, staring at space. I didn't even notice that I couldn't breath, or that I felt sick, or anything... and the Earth..." his face looked wistful at this, "shining like a jewel. And then I was falling, down and down and down... it burned, but I was alright, and through clouds I fell, which cooled me off, and then... oh England is beautiful here. And Wales. I could see Cardiff!" he laughed. "And then... then the ground rushed up to me and I hit it and..."

"What?" the Doctor asked, as the Captain paused.

"I woke up," Jack said. "And that was it."

"Coool," Eilidh said, appreciatively.

"Anyway," the Doctor said. "With the loss of their flagship, the Zagrites will probably leave."

"You sure?" Eilidh asked.

"Yep," the Doctor grinned. "Without a flagship, they have no overall commander, and if the ship is lost, then that's a major blow to their honour. They'll want to go home, face the retribution. Earth's a primitive world, and losing a ship trying to take it'll seriously damage their mentality. So they'll go home. Get punished. The Admiral'll get a statue for heroic death. Etc."

"Doesn't seem right for that loony to get anything like that," Jack commented.

"Well," the Doctor said, "they'll blame whoever they got their strategy off of. Quantill or something. I dunno."

"Can we go?" Eilidh asked quietly. "I'm really sick of 1973."

"Yeah," the Doctor said, nodding in agreement. "This isn't really the best year of the 70's, apart from 1979 which was absolutely awful..."

And so going, the time travellers headed for where they'd parked the Cortina.

--

The Doctor walked back from the TARDIS garage.

"The Cortina's all parked," he said. "Where shall we go now?"

Jack and Eilidh looked at each other.

"I don't care," the girl said. "So long as it's somewhere where there aren't any vampires, or fairies, or alien invasion fleets, or anything else like that."

"I just wanna go somewhere where I can get a good beer," Jack said. "You haven't got a good alcoholic drink on this entire ship."

The Doctor smiled. He walked over to the console, flicked a switch, spun a wheel, pulled a lever, pushed a button, twiddled a knob (well he called it a knob, it was actually an old snow globe), pulled another lever, flicked another switch, and pushed a big red button.

"We're off," the Doctor smiled. "To..."

Jack grinned like a loon when the Doctor said where they were going. Eilidh smiled softly.

"Do we have a choice?" she asked.

"No," the Doctor said, still smiling. The rotor slowed, and the TARDIS landed.

"Well," Jack said, "I cannot wait."

He ran out, the Doctor following with a brisk walk, hands in pockets.

Eilidh sighed. Big boys in a big toy, she thought. Could be worse. At least it's not boring.

She followed them out, putting her cardigan on. They were off on another adventure.


	11. Epilogue

**Epilogue.**

The official Zagrite records state that the Earth expedition ended in failure. Admiral Salas (the true shortened version of his name) was hailed a hero in death. No one ever knew the truth. And perhaps it's better that way. That way, the losses in that campaign died with honour, rather than the shame they would have had heaped upon their families if the truth got out.

As it stands they all got what all Zagrites crave, carved into their graves at the memorial of the Earth Conquest fleet.

**Honour in Death. Glory in the Next Life.**

But this was not the end. The high command council had decreed that they would build a new fleet, and assemble a new force. The planet Earth would pay for the death of Admiral Salas and his ship – The Zagrites would be avenged. They were warriors, of the first order. Soldiers, through and through. This fleet, it turned out, would be vital to the future of the Zagrite race...

They would always have a war to fight, a battle to win – a planet to conquer.

Earth would not be forgotten in a hurry.  
_  
**Fin.**_


End file.
